Family Court in Tiberias forces teen to undergo cancer treatment

Parents say family rabbi instructed them not to continue treatments because teen would recover without them.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Scales of Justice 370 (photo credit: REUTERS / Stephane Mahe)
Scales of Justice 370
(photo credit: REUTERS / Stephane Mahe)
The family court in Tiberias has forced a 14-year-old boy suffering from lymphatic leukemia to undergo chemotherapy even though he and his parents have refused to allow him to undergo additional cancer treatment at a hospital in Haifa.
The court stated that the boy had not been received from his parents accurate information on his chances for recovery if he underwent chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
The success rate for blood cancers in children and teenagers is very high, and the boy’s blood cancer receded. But the parents refused continuing treatment to keep the cancer in remission, saying that their family rabbi instructed them not to allow him to have the treatments because he would recover without them.
The parents told the court they were afraid their son would die from the therapy and that if the police came after them, they would take him to a hiding place. The boy said his previous treatments were very painful and that he preferred to “go home and die.”